The Commission filed its initial complaint on June 1, 2005 against Vilar, Tanaka and Amerindo US alleging that they defrauded a client, L.C., by misappropriating funds she invested in the Amerindo Venture Fund LP, a limited partnership that was purportedly being organized to qualify and be operated as a Small Business Investment Company.

The amended complaint expands upon these allegations and includes allegations against the following additional defendants:

Amerindo Advisors UK Limited ("Amerindo UK"), a United Kingdom corporation, is an investment adviser. Vilar and Tanaka are the sole shareholders, officers and directors of Amerindo UK.

Amerindo Management Inc. ("AMI") is a Panamanian corporation. Vilar is the President of AMI and Tanaka is the Secretary of AMI, and both Vilar and Tanaka serve as directors of AMI.

ATGF is a hedge fund incorporated in Panama. Vilar is the President, and Tanaka is the Secretary, of ATGF, and both Vilar and Tanaka serve as directors of ATGF.

ATGF II is a hedge fund incorporated in Panama. Vilar is the President, and Tanaka is the Secretary, of ATGF II, and both Vilar and Tanaka are directors of ATGF II.

Techno Raquia, S.A. ("Techno Raquia") is a Panamanian corporation, and Tanaka is the Secretary and a director of Techno Raquia, and Vilar is an officer and/or agent of Techno Raquia.

The amended complaint alleges that Amerindo US, Amerindo UK and Amerindo Panama (collectively, "Amerindo"), Vilar, Tanaka and other affiliated entities, including Techno Raquia, defrauded individuals and entities who invested in GFRDAs. Vilar and Tanaka, as well as other Amerindo employees, solicited clients to invest funds in GFRDAs, a product in which Amerindo guaranteed that investors would earn a fixed rate of return per year on their investment, and would receive their principal at maturity. Amerindo represented to investors that it would invest the majority of their funds in short-term debt instruments and invest the remaining portion of their funds in equities. After individuals and entities invested funds in the GFRDAs, however, Vilar, Tanaka and Amerindo failed to invest the funds in accordance with the representations to investors. Rather, Vilar and Tanaka largely invested in equity securities, such as emerging technology and biotechnology stocks. Moreover, especially during the post-2000 bear market, these equity investments did not perform well and Amerindo was often unable to pay GFRDA investors their promised returns, or to return investors' principal at maturity. Consequently, when investors sought to redeem their GFRDAs, Amerindo generally either refused to honor redemption requests, or redeemed the GFRDAs with other investors' funds taken from unrelated brokerage accounts in, for example, the name of AMI, ATGF and/or ATGF II.

Additionally, the amended complaint alleges that Vilar, Tanaka and Amerindo defrauded investors who invested in two offshore hedge funds, ATGF and ATGF II. According to offering circulars, ATGF and ATGF II planned to invest in emerging growth companies. Rather than using investor funds solely to invest in such companies' securities, however, Tanaka directed ATGF and ATGF II to transfer investor funds from the funds' brokerage accounts to other accounts for Vilar's and Tanaka's own business and personal benefit.

The Commission's amended complaint seeks disgorgement of the defendants' ill-gotten gains, civil penalties, and permanent injunctions from future violations of the antifraud provisions of the federal securities laws.

The Commission acknowledges the assistance of the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York and the United States Postal Inspection Service in connection with this matter.

For information about earlier developments in this matter, please see Litigation Release Number 19245 / June 2, 2005.